YMCA Ignite is the online learning platform of YMCA of Greater Toronto. It launched in 2023 with YMCA BC and funding from RBC Foundation, and offers free and low-cost courses in career development, financial empowerment, entrepreneurship, health and well-being, and child care to learners across Canada.
YMCA reports more than 41,000 learners and 11,000 certificates issued on Ignite since launch.
Ignite started on Absorb, a standalone LMS with its own design, admin and reporting. YMCA's main website, ymcagta.org, has run on Core dna since 2022.
In 2026 YMCA moved Ignite onto the same Core dna setup, so its website and an all-in-one LMS covering courses, learners, orders and certificates now run on one platform.
For the main website story, see how YMCA of Greater Toronto took online registrations from 1,500 in a day to 8,000.
Ignite on Absorb
On Absorb, Ignite was a separate system from the rest of YMCA online.
Course pages, program information and the catalog looked and worked differently from ymcagta.org, and the team updated them in a different admin, with a different vendor.
Reporting was the other constraint. Absorb reports covered time spent, course completion and exam results.
Each month YMCA produced a participant count of everyone who had spent more than zero minutes in a course during the period, and program teams and funders relied on that number.
What YMCA needed from the new LMS
- Ignite in Y branding, with landing pages, program pages and news built the same way as the rest of the YMCA site.
- A catalog people can browse and search before they create an account.
- Free and paid courses through one checkout.
- SCORM support, progress tracking and certificates.
- Reports YMCA can run by date range for program teams and funders.
- The same environments, support team and account manager as ymcagta.org.
Moving SCORM courses and learners off Absorb
A full export from Absorb. YMCA provided a full export of Ignite from Absorb, including learner accounts, courses and SCORM packages.
A SCORM workflow on Core dna. Core dna built the workflow that loads each SCORM package and links it to a course record. Learners launch a course from their dashboard, the platform records their progress, and closing the window and coming back picks up near where they stopped. Certificates can be generated and downloaded for SCORM courses.
Courses and products the team manages. Each course is a Course record (content, units and tests) linked to a Product record (price and listing), so selling a course and delivering it use the same data. Recording courses hold one or more videos, and the YMCA team creates and edits them in the Core dna admin.
Learners imported at launch. Learner accounts from the Absorb export were imported as the new site went live.
Participant reporting rebuilt. In the weeks after launch, Core dna added an active user report and tracking of each learner's last activity, which gives YMCA the monthly participant count it used to run in Absorb.
For how Core dna combines courses, commerce and content, see the LMS, eCommerce and CMS platform page.
Want to see how it works?
Book a call with Core dna. We'll walk you through how SCORM courses, learners and certificates can move onto the same platform as your website, and what that would involve for your LMS.
The results
- The new Ignite went live about six weeks after kickoff, on the same Core dna setup as ymcagta.org.
- Courses, learners, orders and certificates now sit on one platform with YMCA's website content and forms.
Read the main website story: how YMCA of Greater Toronto took online registrations from 1,500 in a day to 8,000.
